It is known in the prior art to generate images using modulated ejection of ink to print on dye receiving sheets. Electronic images are received by these printers, and images are converted into signals to the ink jet head to selectively transfer dye to the dye receiver sheet to create prints of the received images. Such ink jet printers use low amounts of energy to create prints, opening the possibility of creating portable printers such as the Canon BJC-80 ink jet printer. The BJC-80 uses a small battery to provide power for generating 8.5 by 11 inch images. Because the printer makes a large number of large prints, the printer is large, heavy and cannot be carried on a person. Other printers are not battery powered, have a similar size and require a wall socket to power the computer.
Such printers can be portable and used in field environments to create hard copy prints from apparatus creating and storing digital images. One type of apparatus could be an electronic still camera. Interconnection between the printer can be made through an industry standard infra-red data link (IrDa). Data representing the image is reduced to a binary data stream that is transferred to the printer as light pulses. Alternatively, interconnection can be a two wire data link to transfer the binary formatted image data from an image storage device to the printer.